Columbia Threadneedle Real Estate has acquired Phase 2 and 3 of Merry Hill Retail Park in Brierley Hill and Phoenix Retail Park in Corby on behalf of separate client funds for undisclosed sums. These recent acquisitions follow the purchase of Parkgate Shopping Park in Yorkshire earlier this year and reinforce Columbia Threadneedle Real Estate’s position as one of the largest retail park owners in the UK.
Phases 2 and 3 of Merry Hill Retail Park comprise a combined circa 197,000sq ft of retail warehouse and restaurant space on a site that extends to almost 15 acres with approximately 600 free parking spaces. Anchor tenants include The Range, Currys, Wren Kitchens, DFS and Pets at Home trading from a range of retail formats from 1,900sq ft to circa 52,000sq ft.
Merry Hill delivers close to half a million square feet of food, convenience and homeware retailing and is complemented by the significant fashion and leisure provision in the adjacent 1.4m sq ft Merry Hill Shopping Centre.
The combined retail critical mass is a major draw across the West Midlands as a whole. Merry Hill has an estimated spend of some £600m per annum, demonstrating the dominance of the location with a large and loyal shopping catchment of more than 540,000 people within a 20-minute drivetime.
Phoenix Retail Park is the dominant retail park in Corby, offering 118,200sq ft of retail warehouse accommodation with anchor tenants including M&S Foodhall, Matalan, The Range, Currys, Next and The Food Warehouse. Its occupier mix is complementary to the demographics of the local catchment with a focus on food, discount and convenience-led retailing. It adjoins a 95,000 q ft Asda superstore, which adds further critical mass, and the town of Corby has recorded significant population growth over the last decade, with further growth on the existing 203,000-strong catchment forecast thanks to a residential development pipeline of more than 12,000 new homes.
Tom Elviss, fund manager at Columbia Threadneedle Real Estate, commented: “The simultaneous acquisition of both Phases 2 and 3 at Merry Hill Retail Park from two separate vendors constitutes a majority holding at one of the UK’s dominant retail warehouse clusters in the West Midlands. This presents a significant opportunity to maximise the assets’ potential under single ownership.
“Phoenix Retail Park is set to benefit from Corby’s sizeable residential development pipeline, which brings with it a catchment growth proposition that will allow us to enhance the tenant mix further.
“At both locations, we intend to draw on our strong retailer relationships and scale in the retail warehouse market as we seek to proactively asset manage the holdings to deliver strong returns for our investors.”
For the Merry Hill transaction, Harvey Spack Field acted for the purchaser and Morgan Williams represented the vendors, while Savills advised the purchaser on the Phoenix Retail Park acquisition and Knight Frank represented the vendor.
